Noragami episode 7: Street Worker Nora

This seventh episode of Noragami certainly wasn’t bad. It was filled with meaning and the weight of the burden on Yato’s shoulder could be felt even more. He has to take care of a cancer that is raging his inside, a wild young delinquent that is destroying his health and yet he refuses to give up on him. It is rather obvious that Yato isn’t the blood thirsty murderer he is made out to be recently, instead he proves himself to be quite the benevolent god.

It is a rather nice change of pace to see Yato being told nice thing about him from a Regalia, rather than having the Regalia leave him or insult him in some way. We really don’t have such a clear history of what really happened in Yato’s past. We know it is grim, we know it involves murder, but we don’t really have any of the details of that past. Maybe his past really is just as grim as it is implied, with no redeeming morals behind it, but maybe there is more to the whole story and that Yato isn’t that cruel of a God after all. I mean, if a Regalia as pure and intelligent as Kazuma somehow cares about Yato even though he serves another Deity, it surely means that the guy has something worthwhile about him right?

This episode the only thing we really learned is the meaning behind Nora. We always thought that she was somehow directly affiliated with Yato, I suppose there was already quite a bit of indication that she had many names and masters, after all she was covered with the marks of different masters all over her body. It was a rather proper way of describing a Nora that Tenjin used, because the term I would have used to describe a Nora would be the word slut. She is a girl that have no loyalty, will go with anyone who needs her, she just wants you to call her name and use her. She wants to be useful to you, she remains your own little dirty secret. Nora are Regalia that do the things that you would never ask your own Regalia and you usually never talk about the time you spent with them. Nora are prostitutes.

Having this new definition in mind, it really comes to no surprise that Yato is rather ashamed and unwilling to discuss his time with that Regalia. That girl must have some dirt on him and she must reminds him of rather dark and low point in his life. I can perfectly understand his temptation, the easiness to fall back to the easy way, the dark side where want you want is so easy to get, but it would bring such shame and dishonour on him, it really is no surprise that he wants nothing to do with her. Yato seems to have moved on from his past, but you can’t forget your past and expect it to forget about you too.